my weird life.

Chapter 1499 "Chang"

For example, if you help the stall owner to interpret the fortune, you can not only avoid the cost of a meal, but also get a lot of rewards. At the invitation of the stall owner, several fortune tellers were eager to try, but they were reserved and did not take the initiative to walk out of the crowd, waiting for the stall owner to invite them.

At this time, an old man with some age spots on his face, wearing ragged feather clothes, walked out of the crowd. He snatched the tortoise shell from the stall owner and said to him, "Let me interpret the divination for you."

Seeing that he was so old and was just an ordinary fortune teller with no status, the stall owner hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should ask him to interpret the fortune.

But the old man winked at him and whispered in his ear: "I will only take ten shells from you.

My divination is very accurate."

When the stall owner heard that he only accepted ten cowrie shells, he immediately looked delighted and without hesitation, he asked the old man to interpret his fortune for him.

The old man, wearing clothes made of bird feathers and animal skins, sat on the ground. He took a look at the pattern on the tortoise shell - even though Su Wu was far away, he could still see clearly the cracks on the tortoise shell caused by the burn - it was a crossed left and right strokes, and from a distance it looked like the word "凶".

Su Wu thought to himself that the result of the stall owner's divination should not be good.

However, the facts were beyond his expectations.

The old man looked at the tortoise shell with a smile. His fingers ran over the cracks on the tortoise shell that were crossed with a left and right stroke. Under the left stroke, a horizontal line parallel to the right stroke appeared. Suddenly, the meaning of the lines on the tortoise shell changed completely!

The cracks artificially created by the old man and the cracks caused by the previous flames together formed the Chinese character "士".

And under the word "士" there are some original patterns on the tortoise shell, which looks like the word "吉"!

From bad to good!

But, can this interpretation be accurate?
Is this old man a liar?
Su Wu was thinking about this when he saw the old man stand up and said to the stall owner, "With a fortune-teller like this, is it really necessary for a fortune-teller to interpret it?

It is an auspicious sign.

The wine you brew must be rich and sweet!"

The stall owner took the tortoise shell handed over by the old man and saw that there was a word "Ji" on the tortoise shell as the old man said. He was overjoyed and took out nearly 20 shell coins and gave them to the old man.

Afterwards, the stall owner opened the seal of the pottery jar and scooped out a glass of wine to taste. It was just as the old man said, rich, sweet!

The old man drank another free cup of wine from the stall owner and then walked to the next stall.

He used the same trick again and successfully persuaded the second stall owner to hand over the tortoise shell to him for divination in exchange for ten cowrie shells. Su Wu saw that the lines on the tortoise shell were faint, almost non-existent. He learned from him that such divination often indicated that a matter was dull and there would be almost no progress.

If it is above winemaking, it means that the wine is bland and tasteless - which is also close to failure.

However, the old man said, "Your wine must be very clear, almost like water, comparable to spring water, and must be sweet and mellow!"

The second stall owner was equally delighted. He opened the seal and tasted the wine. It was indeed sweet and mellow, just as the old man had described!
Su Wu was surprised that the old man's divination was so accurate, and his conclusions were often very different from what the "Zhenren Nuo" next to him said. So he asked him to stay where he was, and he went to the third stall the old man went to. After the old man explained that the wine of the third stall owner must be sweet and rich, he bought a cup of wine from the stall owner to taste - it was indeed sweet, but not much different from the sweet wine he had drunk before.

The old man's divination is indeed not much different from the sweet wine sold by the stall owner.

Afterwards, he followed the old man to drink the sweet wine from the fourth, fifth, and sixth places. In fact, the quality and smell of the wines from these places were basically the same, but there were often various differences in the divination results shown on the tortoise shells that the old man took.

The divination results given by the old man were always the same as before, and they were all auspicious and good.

From this, Su Wu roughly understood that the quality of the wine brewed by the stall owners was only related to their craftsmanship. They all made a living by brewing wine at the city gate. Their craftsmanship and brewing techniques were almost the same, so the quality of the wine was also quite similar, and it was impossible to tell the difference between the two.

However, the results of their divination before each drinking must be different, or even completely different, according to the divination of real fortune tellers.

So, perhaps divination is actually unnecessary when it comes to winemaking.

Divination cannot affect the "actual quality" of the wine, but it can affect people's subjective evaluation of the wine.

Or maybe divination is deeply related to the quality of wine, but the old man who looks ordinary and more like a liar than a chaste person reversed the divination without Su Wu noticing, thereby affecting the actual quality of the wine.

In any case, the old man eventually walked to the stall where Qu and Su Wu were.

He still interpreted a good divination for the stall owner.

The stall owner happily opened the seal, and after tasting the wine, he served a glass of wine to the old man and invited him to taste it for free.

The old man received the reward, looked around with the glass of wine in his hand, and then cast his gaze towards where Su Wu and Sui were.

Holding a wine cup, he walked up to Su Wu and Qu with a smile and sat down on the ground.

"Hello, two friends." The old man had a sincere smile on his face. He raised his wine cup and gestured to the two of them. "My name is Chang, and I am from Zhou. I wonder where you are from?"

Hearing the voice, Qu looked at Su Wu.

He had seen all the divinations the old man had done before, and now he wanted to debate with him, but since his master was beside him, he would not speak rashly.

"We come from the 'hungry land'. My name is Wu. This is my servant, named 'Qu'." Su Wu responded to the old man.

Jidi was a large clan near Yindu, and took "Ji" as its surname.

Su Wu did not tell the old man the truth.

They came from Gechang, but the entire Gechang clan had already defected to the Zhou Kingdom. Without knowing the old man's specific identity, if they rashly told the truth, the other party might follow the clues to learn more about the situation, especially since the old man's name was "Chang". If the old man's surname was "Ji", then the other party's identity would almost be revealed.

"So it's Wu and Qu from Hungry Land.

Let's drink together, Wu, Qu." The old man picked up the wine cup again, drank half of it, and sighed with an intoxicated look on his face, "Li wine is sweet, but not too intoxicating, so it is loved by people.

If it could be more intoxicating, more people would love it.

People who live under the gaze of the heavens are in too much pain, and drinking such a drink can numb them for a while. But reality has never changed because of drinking.

Therefore, the Zhou State prohibited brewing and drinking.

Only after leaving Zhoudi can I secretly drink a cup of sweet wine."

"People already know how sweet and intoxicating Li wine is, so how can they resist it? The Zhou Dynasty can only ban alcohol temporarily, but it can't be like this forever, right?

Moreover, the common people of Zhou State cannot drink, but the nobles of Zhou State can drink wine in private, right?" Su Wu smiled and asked the old man.

The old man laughed and said, “You see it very clearly.

Some things can never be completely banned, but if those in power do not take measures to ban them, then it is their dereliction of duty.

People are originally ignorant and chaotic, and only education can help them to break away from being wild beasts like monkeys and apes and grow into real human beings. "

"How can humans be born ignorant and chaotic?" Qu couldn't help but say, "We are born with the spirit of heaven and earth, and we are different from beasts from birth.

Acquired education only makes people smarter, but it cannot make people fundamentally different from when they were babies. "

"Were you born knowing how to offer sacrifices? Do you know how to ask the heavens for divination?" Chang, a man from Zhou, asked him back.

He frowned and shook his head.

"Is it God who made you suddenly know how to perform sacrifices and become a chaste person?" Chang asked again.

He still shook his head.

"Then why do you think that you were born with the spirit of heaven and earth?"

"Because only humans can become chaste. Beasts like pigs, dogs, cows and sheep have never become priests. This is why it shows that we are born in accordance with the will of heaven." Qu responded naturally.

Zhou Guoren Chang shook his head and laughed, and asked him again: "Why did the gods of the sky look like hundreds of wild beasts at first, but gradually grew into human form after being worshipped again and again?"

When Qu heard this, his face froze and he didn't know how to answer Zhou Guorenchang's question.

He frowned, his mind racing, and was completely absorbed by this question - yes, why did the gods in the sky originally have the features of beasts like cows, sheep, pigs, and dogs, but after repeated sacrifices, they became human?

If people were born in accordance with the spirit of heaven, they should look like cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, and possess all the characteristics of wild beasts!

On the contrary, does it mean that the gods in heaven are actually born to uphold the spirit of man and are gradually educated by humans?
Man has enlightened Heaven?!

As soon as this thought flashed through Qu's mind, he was immediately filled with fear. He was frightened by this sudden idea and did not dare to think about it any further!
The Zhou citizen then spoke out his own opinion: "Humans are just one of the thousands of animals in the world. There is nothing special about them.

But because of "education", humans are separated from other animals and gradually become unique.

And because people are different from others, God will choose them. Among the people, there began to be people who specialize in offering sacrifices to God.

The gods in the sky were originally no different from humans. They were just one of the myriad animals in the universe. But people worshipped them, so they grew rapidly and gradually became more powerful than people.

Such offerings are actually a kind of education from humans to heaven.

Therefore, I believe that there has never been any heavenly law—"

Zhou Guorenchang looked at Su Wu, his eyes sparkling: "Humanity is the way to tolerate everything, what do you think?"

There has never been any heavenly way. There is only one way in the world, and that is the 'human way'!
Su Wu was shocked by Chang's words, and his eyes were shining - he had now confirmed that this Chang from Zhou was no other than Ji Chang, who was revered as "King Wen of Zhou" in later generations, the King Wen who evolved the "Sixty-four Hexagrams of King Wen"!

He smiled, looked at Chang, and said, "So you read divinations for the wine stall owners and explained their fortunes in order to educate them?
What divination is actually never important.

What is important is this fortune teller, this educator?"

"Although Heaven is powerful and holds the authority of the world, making all people submit to it, it is only powerful, and its consciousness is still as ignorant as a beast and as confused as a child. It cannot take into account many aspects of the world and cannot fully grasp them." Chang smiled and said, "We have educated the Heaven to be what it is today, but it tries to completely control us and feed on us. This shows that the nature of Heaven is evil and cannot be changed even after education.

Therefore, we must take the initiative to master those aspects that even Heaven cannot take into account, and use our teachings to replace Heaven’s control over the human world.

But people nowadays believe in heaven too much and want to replace heaven immediately, which is actually impossible.

Therefore, we need to use the name of heaven to gradually erode heaven's control over the human world, and eventually make everything easier.

This so-called 'Tao of Yi' is the principle that I follow now, and it should also be the right way for humanity today.

Humanity is the way of education.

Although the sky is powerful, it is not omniscient. How could it know how to make wine?
People have learned the art of brewing wine, but they rely on sacrifices to heaven for the quality of the wine. Isn't this transferring their own authority to heaven and letting heaven control it?
Nowadays, God does not take care of the wine-making industry and has no control over them for the time being.

But once the heavens noticed an industry like winemaking and ordered them to offer living people as sacrifices, wouldn't they have to kill people as sacrifices every time the wine was opened?

Therefore, we must seize this opportunity, in the name of heaven, to seize the power that it has not yet seized.

From today on, people will think that there is a Zhou Guozhen named "Chang" whose divination about the wine-making industry is quite correct. As this continues day by day, "Chang"'s position in the wine-making industry's sacrificial offerings will gradually become unshakable. At this time, it will be completely impossible for the heaven to try to erode the wine-making industry.

Because at that time, they believed in Chang more than they believed in Heaven itself!"

The old man had clear ideas and stern words. There was a gleam of wisdom in his eyes. After he told Su Wu about his ideas, he was very impressed.

This kind of divination on behalf of the gods and the method of interpreting physiognomy can be used in the winemaking industry today, in farming in the Ming Dynasty, and in wars later. In the end - the gods will even become "false gods", and the "gods" presided over by humanity will become the real gods!
However, this method also has a key point that needs to be overcome.

Su Wu's mind flashed, and he asked Xiang Chang: "You may be familiar with wine making, so you can judge the quality of the wine made by the stall owners and give corresponding divination interpretations.

But if you make such divination interpretations in areas that you are not familiar with and make a mistake, how can others believe you?

No one can ensure that he is completely and always right.

You’re going to make mistakes, and sometimes even just one mistake can undo all the hard work you’ve done.”

(End of this chapter)